 Dancing in Petersburg, the memoirs of Mathilde Kschessinska.
Author: Kschessinska, Mathilde Published: 2005 Mathilde Kschessinska was one of the last great ballerinas of pre-Soviet Russia, one of the only two to be officially awarded the title of Prima Ballerina Assoluta. As a dancer she had few rivals: apart from her marvellous technique she had a star personality and was adored by her public. But her private life was even more remarkable: mistress first of the last Tsar of Russia and then of the Grand Duke André whom she later married, Kschessinska was forced to flee Russia soon after the revolution, beginning a new career as a great dance teacher in Paris. Kschessinska was not slow to take advantage of her aristocratic connections in furthering her career, and there were often difficulties as a result; but no-one could be angry with her for long, for she retained always a great gift for friendship and an exceptionally warm heart - always generous, for example, to the young Karsavina, whom she might have been expected to regard as a potential rival. Her memoirs give a picture of a fascinating, sometimes infuriating woman, used to living in surroundings which can nowadays only be dreamt of, and are essential and enormously enjoyable reading for anyone interested in the Russian ballet world at the turn of the nineteenth century. |
